1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a document information processing apparatus and a document data information processing program capable of managing documents by writing or describing metadata in the form of information on the documents into document files in the form of image data.
Here, note that a document means a document or text file of an application and a data file of a format such as an image format, an audio format or the like.
In addition, a document information processing apparatus means an apparatus that processes, registers and manages documents and their metadata, and information on the documents to be managed includes location information on the documents existing on a system (which, for example in an explore, a file viewer, of a Microsoft Windows, is managed as paths in a folder structure that depends on a Windows file system), links (for example, links to respective application forms of enterprise portals), layout or placement structures according to contents (for example, categories of Yahoo), and so on. Also, this apparatus can further contains systems that provide management structures to keep or store documents themselves (for example, document management systems). The apparatus is available from a plurality of users and has a user authentication function and a function to be shared through networks. Moreover, the apparatus is able to cooperate with various devices of the above-mentioned document input-output system so as to extend a function to perform media conversion between paper data and electronic data and an external communication facility such as facsimile.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, the management of documents carried out in a general document input-output system is performed by associating the documents with metadata possessed by the documents (for example, see Japanese patent application laid-open No. 2002-245064).
Here, note that the metadata of each document includes attribute and/or property information such as the author or creator of the document, the group to which the creator belongs, the place in which the creator is mainly resident, users of the document, the group or groups to which the users belong, the place or places in which the users are mainly resident, the data and time of creation, the weather at the time of creation, the environment around the creator at the time of creation, the dates and times of use, the weathers at the time of use, the environments around the users, the applications used for creation, etc.
Specifically, in case where information on the user who create a document is managed as metadata together with document information, the document and the user information are respectively kept or stored in a database separately from each other. In this case, the user information is stored in the form of a user table or the like together with a plurality of pieces of other user information. Further, the documents and the user information are made consistent with each other so as to make it possible to mutually associate them with one another.
In such a system, however, as the amount of documents to be managed increases, it becomes necessary to use a retrieval means for finding or retrieving desired documents. In such a case, conventional systems generally provide the following functions so as to assist the finding or retrieval operation of the users: (1) Storage folders and categories can be set for the documents to be retrieved, so that the documents can be properly arranged and organized by using such a management structure; (2) The documents can be retrieved in accordance with their contents through full-text searches; and (3) The documents are sorted through a user view capable of displaying a list of the documents by making use of metadata thereof. These functions can be used independently of one another as well as in their proper combinations.
In the above-mentioned conventional technique, in the case of managing the metadata, there is provided a module for managing identifiers corresponding to the instances of the documents in a collective manner, and the module serves to perform the management of the metadata of the pertinent documents by associating the metadata with the instances of the documents. In this case, the metadata are not attached to the document instances themselves, so when the metadata corresponding to the pertinent documents are made reference to, it is necessary to access a module that collectively manages the metadata.
Here, note that the instances of the documents in this application are actual instances that depend on the styles or formats by which the documents are described. For example, in a Windows file system, they are files that are managed thereon, and in a document management system, they are data records or the like that are stored in a database managing images thereon. Also, the stiles or formats mean storage forms specific to TIF file operation modules, PDF file operation modules, document management systems, and so on. Here, the modules means software modules that are possessed by the respective component devices of the document information processing apparatus or components of the document input-output system.
In such a management method, the correspondence (link relation) between the instances of pertinent documents and the identifiers collectively managed by the modules might collapse or break off, and processes for prevention of such a situation carried out in the modules might load the entire system. In addition, since the management of the instances of the documents and their metadata has to be made consistent, such management becomes dependent on the system, so the versatility of the document management with other systems that do not adopt the pertinent document management system will be lost, thus giving rise to the problem that the portability of the documents to the other systems will also be lost.